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It hadn’t worked, of course it hadn’t, because Natalie had grown too accusto in Merry the convenient little best friend she had expected she had beenin coer than Natalie, had entered her life, the writing had been on the wall Keen to return to Australia and take Natalie with him, he had been frank about his reluctance to take on a paternal role while still in his twenties Merry had moved back in with Sybil and had not seen her mother since her departure
‘Did I see the postman?’ Sybil asked casually
Merry stiffened and flushed, thinking guiltily of that envelope stuffed in the hall table ‘I bought so for Elyssa online,’ she fibbed in shautsy as Sybil that a letter could frighten and distress her
‘No further communication fro her niece with that leading question, for lately her aunt had been very quiet on that topic
‘Evidently we’re having a bit of a break froht nohich is really nice,’ Merry s while Sybil lifted her great-niece off the rug and cuddled her before sitting down again with the baby cradled on her lap
‘Don’t even think about him’
‘I don’t,’ Merry lied yet again, a current of self-loathing assailing her because only a co about a man who had mistreated her But then, really, ould Sybil understand about that? As a staggeringly beautiful and fa men off with sticks but had simply never met one she wanted to settle doith Merry doubted that any man had ever disrespected Sybil and lived to tell the tale
‘He’ll get his cooes around comes around’
‘But it bothers me that I hate him so much,’ Merry confided in a rush half under her breath ‘I’ve never been a hater before’
‘You’re still hurting Now that you’re starting to date again, those bad memories will soon sink into the past’
An unexpected smile lit Merry’s heart-shaped face at the prospect of the afternoon out she was having the following day As a veterinary surgeon, Fergus Wickhaular visits to the rescue centre He had first nant, only evidently it had not put hihter was born and she was more likely to be receptive to an approach
She liked Fergus, she enjoyed his coive her butterflies in her tuuiltily, but then how is in the overall scheel’s sexual allure had been the health equivalent of a lethal snakebite, pulling her in only to poison her Beautiful but deadly Dear heaven, she hated hi trapped e inexorably back sixteen months…
CHAPTER TWO
MERRY WAS FULL of enthusiash it wasn’t her drea left university with a first-class honours degree in accountancy and business, she had no intention of settling per a front-desk receptionist at Valtinos Enterprises
Even so, she had badly needed paid eraduate job applications had ensured that she was forced to depend on Sybil’s generosity for more months than she cared to count Sybil had already supported Merry through her years as a student, helping her out with handy vacation jobs at the rescue centre while always providing her with a comfortable home to come back to for weekends and holidays
Her job at Valtinos Enterprises was Merry’s first step towards true independence The work paid well and gave her the breathing space in which to look for aher to base herself in London without relying on her aunt’s financial help She had rotty aparth hopes